On this blog you'll find a daily analysis of the forecast of the surf, windsurf, kitesurf and foiling conditions in Maui.
Email me if you need a Maui surf guide or a surf, SUP, SUP foil, prone foil or windfoil lesson. I've been teaching water sports since 2001.

Tuesday, July 31, 2018

6 a.m.lahaina side is mostly flat with inconsistent calf to occasionally thigh high sets in the launiupoko area and in town. clean everywhere

A longboard session and SUP foiling downwinder attempt n.11 for me yesterday. The usual 4-5 take-offs out of the last one, but always with the feeling of having improved a bit and having figured out something new. The discovery of the day is very counter intuitive, the smaller the valley in front of you, the higher the chances to catch the small bump behind. That's because the small bumps are the active wind chop with a period of 2-3 seconds, while the big ones are the formed windswell of 7-8 seconds and move faster, hence are harder to catch. Thanks Alan for the tip.

Haven't found a decent shareable video of the Molokai to Oahu race yet, here's a short abstract from an article on this page: "Lenny was reportedly clocked traveling at 15 to 18 knots at points during the race". That's like windsurfing speed, very impressive.

Facebook proposed me a memory from 4 years ago (seems to me more than that, maybe it was a repost). This day at Desert Point, I witnessed the most perfect barreling waves I'd ever seen. The price to pay in case of a wipeout is pretty evident.

2am significant buoy readingsSouth shore
W
1.6ft @ 15s from 182° (S)

Barbers
1ft @ 16s from 184° (S)

Today it's Lanai's turn to disappear from the Surfline page, but what we see at W and Barbers indicates the presence of low long period energy. It comes from the fetch on July 24-26 that you can observe in the collage below, which I'm happy to repost for your convenience.I should be able to report from the Lahaina side pretty early today.

North shore
Pauwela
4.3ft @ 8s from 91° (E)

Windswell still small and from the east at Pauwela, but as mentioned by the NOAA, "Strengthening trades will bring an increase in wind swell today through Thursday along east facing shores. The wind swell is expected to peak Wednesday night and gradually decline through rest of the week."

NON updated wind map at noon.

No help from the Meteogram fetch maps today, I think I still know how to spot a fetch. Pretty easy in this case in the North Pacific, only windswell, but pretty solid.

Yesterday's fetch strengthened a bit in the South Pacific and that is good news. Nothing major, but a decent swell should grace us in a week.

xAn extended windfoiling lesson was all my arms could take yesterday. And while I was flying over the water propelled by the wind with a sail in my hands, those 10 guys were flying over the water in the channel between Molokai and Oahu still propelled by the wind, but with the help of the wind waves and their paddles. Sounds easier, but it's so much more difficult and exhausting. These are the official results of the foil category, you can find all the results here.

Kai Lenny smashed everybody else again, continuing to strengthen his legend status. Too bad there wasn't a south swell going, as he would have probably caught a wave at China Walls, got barreled and ridden the inside bump all the way to the finish line. Impressive job also by the two teenager follow up-ers. Expect more shots and videos to start populating the social media (and this blog) in the next couple of days.

This is Nathan Van Vuuren with Kai still in site, probably at the beginning of the race.

3am significant buoy readingsSouth shore
W
1.1ft @ 14s

Lanai
1.1ft @ 13s from 198° (SSW)

Somehow Barbers disappeared from the Surfline buoy page (link n.11), but hopefully it will come back soon, as it's still running. The NOAA page is kind of useless as usual, as it indicates only 1f at 10.5s, but I'm sure that there also is longer period energy as the other two reported buoys indicate.
Probably the usual flat to knee high, I'll report IF I go there for a quick pre-downwinder SUP foil session (and coffee).

Oh, here we go. Back already with the 4am reading confirming what I wrote and actually even sensing a sliver of 20s energy.
Barbers
1ft @ 14s from 208° (SSW)

0.4ft @ 20s from 193° (SSW)

This is a decent 13-14s waist high plus set at Ala Moana that I caught right away, nothing much more in the following 15 minutes and plenty flat spells.

This one gives a better idea of the day.

And this one shows a 10s set that didn't even managed to break. The difference between 1f @ 13s and 1f @ 10s is noticeable.

Below is the collage of the maps of July 24, 25, 26 and 27. Nothing to be particularly excited, but there was a small fetch that generated a swell that Surfline predicts to reach 2f 14s on Wednesday.

North shore
Pauwela
4.6ft @ 7s from 73° (ENE)

Small windswell at Pauwela, but the trend for increasing trades and that'll bring it up a notch.

Wind map at noon: strong easterly winds. Thanks Kai for the inspiration, I'll be out there struggling to catch something, with you flying over the water in my mind.

North Pacific only has the windswell fetch, as the out of season low moved north as predicted.

After a week of almost nothing, the South Pacific has a proper south fetch. Pretty weak (only 25 knots), but also pretty large. 2.7f 15s predicted by Surfline on Tuesday August 6, which means that the fetch should be stronger tomorrow.

Sunday, July 29, 2018

Downwind foiling attempt n.10 for me yesterday. The usual 4-5 take-offs with maximum 20 seconds rides, but I had a glorious Kai Lennyish 3 seconds of just gliding without doing nothing and it feels like I'm improving a tiny bit every time. There's one thing I discovered I really don't like about foiling downwinders, though: it is an asymmetrical workout, as you won't see anyone paddling on their backside at any time. I'm afraid that might screw things up with back and shoulders in the long run. We'll see, I guess.

Provided you know how to SUP foil on waves, there's two skills that are needed to be learned in order to be able to do downwinders:
1) pump and paddle your way up to foil with minimal push from the bump behind you
2) keep the foil flying after that by reading the apparent mess of an open ocean with 25+ knots of wind.

Obviously, you can learn the second only after you learned the first. Here's a short video of Eric Terrien explaining how to take off in flat water without any help from wind/waves. Good luck.

All this talk about foil downwinders also because today is the day of the Molokai to Oahu race. These are the foilers registered as of July 20th, but I know there's more of that.

Kai Lenny, 25, Maui

Tomoyasu Murabayashi, 40, Saiwaki, Japan

Jeffrey Spencer, 17, Maui

Finn Spencer, 14, Maui

Nathan Van Vuuren, 16, South Africa

Ryan Funk, 18 Maui

Eric Terrien, 36, Nantes, France

Bernd Roediger, 22, Maui

Armie Armstrong, 47 New Zealand

Changing topic, yesterday the final act of the 2018 Maui Race Series organized by Hi-Tech was held at Kanaha in very windy conditions. Jimmy Hepp has a large gallery of shots here.

Small numbers at the local buoys, but still numbers. That probably translates into flat to knee high with the possible occasional bigger set. Not sure if I'll go today. If I will, of course, I'll report from the beach.

This is the best set I've seen at Ala Moana in 15 minutes while I writing this post. Other than that, flat and only three guys out. That should tell you how marginal of a day it is today.

North shore
Pauwela
3.6ft @ 8s from 91° (E)

North shore definitely not a good alternative for surfing.

Wind map at noon.

North Pacific has a small NW fetch associated with a decent low which unfortunately will move north. Small stuff (2f 11s on Thursday), but it will be nice to see something different than the usual windswell, which will continue relentlessly.

A SUP foiling session for me yesterday. Here's some photos of a contest that was held Wednesday at Queens in Waikiki posted by GoFoil. They also have a video on their page and here's another video on youtube. Austin Kalama still dominates, but I'd like to see Kai and Zane enter one of these local contests.

3am significant buoy readingsSouth shore
W
1.1ft @ 15s from 174° (S)

SW
0.8ft @ 15s from 244° (WSW)

SE
1.2ft @ 15s from 246° (WSW)

Barbers
0.9ft @ 15s from 216° (SW)

0.4ft @ 13s from 184° (S)

Lanai
0.8ft @ 16s from 208° (SSW)

0.8ft @ 12s from 182° (S)

Low energy at the buoys, but that means that once again the Lahaina side won't be flat. Yesterday there were some waist high sets and even a couple of belly high ones. I'll go again, but I'm busy and not sure when I'll be able to report.

North shore
Pauwela
4.6ft @ 6s from 64° (ENE)

3.8ft @ 9s from 86° (E)

That's your windswell for today, I can add that it's already blowing pretty strong in Kuau as I type this well before sunrise.

Wind map at noon.

North Pacific has the usual windswell fetch.
South Pacific has nothing to offer, as that weak fetch in the Tasman Sea is blocked by New Zealand.
Morning sky.

Foiling downwind attempt n. 9 (I think) for me yesterday. First time on my new 5.8 Kalama SUP foiling board which is awesome for waves but definitely not ideal for downwinding. I managed to get it foiling 4-5 times, only one of which I kept it flying for what felt like 10 seconds (so it was probably 5).

The (fun) struggle continues, but I'll keep doing them (if there's nothing better to do) as every time I seem to figure out something. A proper downwind board (I'm thinking 7.6x26) would help at this stage where the main issue is to catch the little bumps that would give you enough speed to start foiling, but then the length would probably hinder the flying part or at least be not as good as a much shorter board. So I'll stick to mine and try to improve on that paddling and pumping technique that make guys like Kai and Zane able to start foiling even in flat water and no wind.

Talking about Kai, he lately shared a run with a 9 year old fan of him called Bobo Gallagher. Here they're posing with an ex Kai surfboard that Bobo got at the Hi-Tech anniversary sale.

And here they are in action. What a nice thing to do by our superwaterman. Photos by Tomoko.

The southern hemisphere trades windswell made its way to the buoys, I consider that mostly a disturbance in the (eventual) clean long period lines coming from the south. We shouldn't be not too effected by it on the Lahaina side, as the Big Island and the Haleakala should protect us, but it'll be interesting to see what's in the water today over there.

In fact, I'm going again this morning (stay tuned for the beach report), because of the lack of alternatives and because of that low 16s energy that hopefully will be enough for something. Below is the collage of the maps of July 20,21 and 22 that shows a weak fetch in the Tasman Sea which is probably the source of it.

North shore
Pauwela
3.8ft @ 5s from 67° (ENE)

3.3ft @ 9s from 73° (ENE)

Lack of alternatives I was mentioning, but in reality it's a personal choice, as I could chase those 3f 9s at Pavils. Unfortunately, that is my least favorite spot on the island, so I'd rather drive. Waiehu side should have favorable wind in the early morning, according to the model at link n. -2, of which I daily report the map at noon here below.

A massive swell is hitting Indonesia at the moment, the start of this post is dedicated to it. This is Mark Healey at Nias. Photo by Ted Grambeau from this Surfline page.

Nias is also the place where this happened. Charter boat off the lip.

This is the forecast for Balangan (a spot in Bali) posted by a friend a few days ago. 15f 20s is something we seldom see even in Hawaii.

The storm that made such a swell is on the left of the map below. The fetch is strong (winds up to 50 knots) and so large that is took most of the southern Indian Ocean.

3am significant buoy readingsSouth shore
W
1.2ft @ 17s

SW
1.3ft @ 17s

SE
1.5ft @ 17s

Barbers
1.1ft @ 13s from 174° (S)

0.8ft @ 18s from 192° (SSW)

Lanai
1.1ft @ 12s from 167° (SSE)

The directions of the south swells at the outer buoys are so wrong that I decided to stop reporting them. I'll still report size and period and they show lovely low long period energy. That is confirmed by Barbers (the most reliable south exposed local buoy, imo), together with a sliver of lower period leftover energy (which shows also at Lanai).

Even going through the saved fetches maps I couldn't find a certain source for this long period energy, but we'll take it as it is. So today should still have some waves. Knee high stuff from the 12-13s energy and possibly bigger but more inconsistent from the long period one. I will report from there later. Yesterday the knee to waist high waves were still totally enjoyable with glassy conditions all the way in the early afternoon in Lahaina. This has been the most remarkable feature this summer: the frequent lack of the mid morning onshores. No idea how to explain that. Just temporary luck, I think, not a permanent change, I fear.

North shore
Pauwela
3.1ft @ 9s from 85° (E)

2.9ft @ 7s from 71° (ENE)

2.6ft @ 5s from 67° (ENE)

1.7ft @ 11s from 57° (ENE)

A lot of small stuff at Pauwela, the waves should be smaller than yesterday at Hookipa.

Wind map at noon. A little note for the readers who like to check this model on their own. This morning, the maps were not updated if checked with Firefox. The were updated instead if checked (at the same time!) with Chrome. Go figure...

North Pacific's only relevant fetch is the windswell and it's a weak one.

Plenty availability of studios and apts in Paia and the north shore.

About Me

Born and raised in Italy, I became an engineer and worked 11 years in the IT industry. Sick of that, in 2001 I wanted to take a year off and spend it in Maui, the best windsurfing spot in the world. Not only I'm still here (in Maui), but I also got into surfing. And the stoke is flying high. Life is too short to work 8 hours a day...